Porsche GT3 Touring - Road Warrior

Enthusiasts of Porsche’s evergreen 911 have always been divided into two camps. Some like the pure outline of the car sans spoilers, while others like the spoilers and bigger wheel arches. Meanwhile, and since the arrival of PDK yet another group has emerged to champion the manual gearbox.

While Porsche never forsook the manual option in their mainstream Carrera, the search for ultimate lap times led the GT car division to a PDK only specification for the 991 GT3 of 2014, resulting in a storm of protest from purist customers.

In response to this Andreas Preuninger and his team took a step back and released the Cayman GT4 in 2015, followed by the 911R in 2016. The success of these manual only models prompted a choice of PDK or manual gearboxes for the 991.2 GT3 launched last year. But an even better idea is the road focused GT3 Touring, which looks more discrete than its winged sister as a daily driver.

The cabin also takes on a different tone from the normal GT3. There is no rear seat or Club Sport package option with half roll cage, and the Alcantara centres of the deep bucket seats is replaced with fabric.

While it sounds a bit trite and hackneyed the action of the GT3 Touring’s short shift gear lever really does operate with the precision of a rifle bolt. This is one of the first things you notice when you get behind the wheel and your hand naturally falls on the short, stubby lever. At that point no self-respecting enthusiast can resist depressing the clutch and operating the shifter.

Read more in our September issue 2018 here!